Describe a need that you have observed in one or more of your high ability students. What evidence do you have that this need exists? What actions are you considering to address this need?
A need that I have observed among high ability students is having exact, straight forward directions. Upon first hearing this, one might find this odd, but I often find that the high ability students are so OVERLY concerned about their grades and if they are doing something correctly, or for the most points possible, that they lose sight of creativity, independence and fun! When completing assignments, they often stick to text book answers and constantly ask to make sure they could put an answer down, and it gets frustrating! Instead of calming down and using their intelligence and creativity, they almost shut that down to look up what exactly the text book says. I often find that the lower ability students are so much more creative and "outside the box" in their answers.....even on the final!! For an example, in a physics lab problem, an higher ability student was asked to calculate potential energy at a midpoint, and text book style they wrote down every formula they knew, raised their hand 10 times to ask questions, and used a formula that honestly made no sense with the problem. The lower level student, DIDN'T know the formula, or which to use, but took out a ruler started measuring heights, and actually was able to come up with a very close answer without ever knowing a formula! He was a creative little guy!
To address, I always try to tell them to not put so much thought into their grades in what they are doing, but the experience themselves. I also try to always include activities that try to force them to be creative.
Describe a need that you have observed in one or more of your medium ability students. What evidence do you have that this need exists? What actions are you considering to address this need?
A need that I have observed among medium ability students include really keeping their attention. Many of them are just your normal teenager, who loves to socialize, have fun and joke around. I feel that these students are the ones who get side-tracked the easiest, because they do know the material, but often don't care enough t catch every detail. For an example, there are 2 students who constantly goof off, but get solid C's and B's! It's difficult to make them keep their focus when they are happy with what they are doing and their grades.
My actions I am considering to address this, is to have more disciplinary actions among students not focusing and disrupting others, and to try to change up activities more, to break up the long period and keep them moving and focusing.
Describe a need that you have observed in one or more of your low ability students. What evidence do you have that this need exists? What actions are you considering to address this need?
One need that I have observed among my low ability students is keeping their motivation up! Some of them study so hard and get low grades, so they get frustrated and lose hope. Many times I've heard some say "What's the point, I'm gunna fail any way". So in order to address this need, I have been doing more informal assessments to both see how well they are catching on and for them to have the opportunity to succeed in these tasks and keep their heads up!
Addressing Student Needs
Describe a need that you have observed in one or more of your high ability students. What evidence do you have that this need exists? What actions are you considering to address this need?
A need that I have observed among high ability students is having exact, straight forward directions. Upon first hearing this, one might find this odd, but I often find that the high ability students are so OVERLY concerned about their grades and if they are doing something correctly, or for the most points possible, that they lose sight of creativity, independence and fun! When completing assignments, they often stick to text book answers and constantly ask to make sure they could put an answer down, and it gets frustrating! Instead of calming down and using their intelligence and creativity, they almost shut that down to look up what exactly the text book says. I often find that the lower ability students are so much more creative and "outside the box" in their answers.....even on the final!! For an example, in a physics lab problem, an higher ability student was asked to calculate potential energy at a midpoint, and text book style they wrote down every formula they knew, raised their hand 10 times to ask questions, and used a formula that honestly made no sense with the problem. The lower level student, DIDN'T know the formula, or which to use, but took out a ruler started measuring heights, and actually was able to come up with a very close answer without ever knowing a formula! He was a creative little guy!
To address, I always try to tell them to not put so much thought into their grades in what they are doing, but the experience themselves. I also try to always include activities that try to force them to be creative.
Describe a need that you have observed in one or more of your medium ability students. What evidence do you have that this need exists? What actions are you considering to address this need?
A need that I have observed among medium ability students include really keeping their attention. Many of them are just your normal teenager, who loves to socialize, have fun and joke around. I feel that these students are the ones who get side-tracked the easiest, because they do know the material, but often don't care enough t catch every detail. For an example, there are 2 students who constantly goof off, but get solid C's and B's! It's difficult to make them keep their focus when they are happy with what they are doing and their grades.
My actions I am considering to address this, is to have more disciplinary actions among students not focusing and disrupting others, and to try to change up activities more, to break up the long period and keep them moving and focusing.
Describe a need that you have observed in one or more of your low ability students. What evidence do you have that this need exists? What actions are you considering to address this need?
One need that I have observed among my low ability students is keeping their motivation up! Some of them study so hard and get low grades, so they get frustrated and lose hope. Many times I've heard some say "What's the point, I'm gunna fail any way". So in order to address this need, I have been doing more informal assessments to both see how well they are catching on and for them to have the opportunity to succeed in these tasks and keep their heads up!